Coda For The AP
by MsStitcher
Summary: This is my first fic and is a little OneShot at the moment. I got this idea from the weekly one shot challenge week 45. This is the coda for the Ancient Pythoness, who in my opinion never quite fulfilled her potential in the books. All characters belong to Miss Harris and HBO :(


Coda : (_Literary & Literary Critical Terms_) a concluding part of a literary work : a summary at the end of a novel of further developments in the lives of the characters

**a**

**Ancient Pythoness (vampire):**

_**The AP**_

_From The Sookie Stackhouse Companion:_

_The original Oracle, consulted by Alexander the Great, the Ancient Pythoness was so revered that she was brought over even in her old age and is now cared for by her handmaidens. She sits in judgment at the trial of Sophie-Anne at the summit in Rhodes, ruling in Sophie-Anne's favour after hearing Sookie's testimony. _

_From After Dead:_

_The Ancient Pythoness continues to be cared for by the vampires of Rhodes. The donors from the Donor Bureau who are sent to her have to be carefully briefed, because giving her blood is terrifying and definitely unsexy._

The Ancient Pythoness had spent many lifetimes watching the comings and goings of all beings. Her milky eyes see many different things and she does not meddle … that much … anymore. However, there are some things that even she can not just sit back and live with.

When she saw what the "fates" had planned for her favourite Telepath and Viking, she decided she had to do something. Together they could and would become great, and She could not fathom why they didn't in her visions, but with the Telepath's penchant for humanity and the Viking's experience, they could bring in a new era for the Supernatural community in Louisiana, setting a precedent for all America.

The idea that a being that survived and thrived for over a thousand years could end up the sex slave of a jumped up little Queen as the final evil act of his demonic Maker was quite frankly absurd. It was this mainly that made her act, where for so long she had sat back and left things alone. Although she wasn't supposed to have favourites she had always been quite fond of the Viking, she admired his zest for life. Aside from that the thought that the Telepath that had saved so many at the Summit would end up following some stupid notion of what a "normal" life should be like also made her grind her teeth, that Telepath deserved to be every much as part of the Supernatural world as any one of them, despite the fact that she craved for a mundane human existence. If only Adele had have had the guts to talk to Sookie about things before she died - the woman that Sookie modelled her ideal on was far from the angelic Christian that she claimed to have been. Besides who the fuck would want a "normal" life?! Especially when they had the chance at endless lives with The Viking at their side?!

The Oracle, in all her wisdom could not see why the "fates" had allowed the lives of The Viking and The Telepath to go so far from where they should, never mind the many lives surrounding them went oddly pear shaped for no discernible reason. It was after spending a considerable time debating these matters with her handmaidens that she finally decided that the "fates" must be testing her.

After first being turned the Ancient Pythoness spent many years travelling the world, scaring the wits out of all the vampires that she came across along the way – there is many reasons that she is so revered! Despite being turned in old age and playing the role of "old hag" very convincingly, she was quicker, stronger and smarter than any other being on the planet, she just hadn't needed to be for centuries. These days all she had to do was to look at someone with her eerie opalescent eyes and the fiercest, meanest creatures wilted before her. After so many years of this treatment she must have grown complacent. Otherwise there is no way that she would have just sat back and let the world happen around her in this way.

By the time that the AP had realised that the 'fates' really were just going to let the supernatural world go to tits, certain things had already been set in motion. As she started plotting, the Telepath was being tortured by the crazy Fae twins, which meant that she had to make some very urgent phone calls first and foremost. Before the AP was even on her private jet, Appius Livius Ocello and his demented progeny Alexei Romanov had a stake through the heart. She knew the pain of losing a Maker and despite the fact that Appius had caused The Viking pain beyond compare over the centuries She knew that he would currently be crippled with the physical sensation that would let him know he was truly free. Luckily since he was currently being held by Victor it wouldn't make a huge difference.

It was her oldest and most devoted child to whom she gave the satisfaction of rescuing The Telepath, knowing that the time it would take her to get on to American soil would be too long to wait to do it herself, she would just have to be satisfied knowing that Lochlan and Neave would finally understand a fraction of the pain that they had dished out over the centuries before her child succumbed to the dawn. Despite it being a very long flight she managed to get a lot done during her flight, she did not need to rest at her age if she didn't want to and so in the blacked out cabin of her plane, with the help of her trusted handmaidens she ironed out the creases in her plans.

She arrived in America shortly after sunset and was met by a curious crowd of the most powerful beings on the continent. As she looked around she realised that she had really let things go and that she would need to spend at least a couple of years if not a couple of decades on each continent, making sure that there was a reasonable hierarchy in place. Of course there were other old creatures such as herself that she wanted to poke into caring as well but that could wait for another night. Her first port of call was the vampire that she had demanded be there on her arrival. Godric had been travelling America for the past fifty years so was close enough to Louisiana . Although it was not a known fact how old he was or the fact that he was from the AP's line, everybody somehow knew not to mess with him and therefore he was generally left alone. This suited Godric as he had outgrown violence, and was now normally a very peaceful being. He had spent time by the AP's side in the past but was currently enjoying meandering the earth, growing more disenchanted with the world. The truth of it was that he was very close to meeting the sun before he got the call to say that he She needed something from him. He hadn't felt Her presence in the bond for so long that he had assumed that She had grown disillusioned too. He had been thinking that maybe sometimes you could just live too long, then out of the blue she called to him through the bond and he felt things that he hadn't felt for years, he felt hope, spirit, enthusiasm and passion again. It reminded him of when the AP had filled her time messing with the heads of the most powerful creatures on the planet just because she could. Shortly after he felt the bond awaken, he got her phone call. He was amazed that she had rung him herself, rather than a member of her staff or one of her handmaidens. After hearing her requestion he couldn't figure out why this particular human was worthy of awakening the fire in his maker, but he vowed to spend the time that he had with Sookie Stackhouse trying to work it out.

The AP had not seen Godric in a very, very long time and so she gave him an uncharacteristic hug when she arrived in his room. It took them both by surprise, but she was the first to recover. "You have taken care of the Telepath" she knew he would do anything for her and he would do it perfectly. Godric just nodded, knowing that she sensed her surroundings rather than seeing them. She could also sense that he wanted more than anything to ask her about the girl. Several minutes passed in comfortable silence as they just took each other in once more, the bond open and pulsing between them. "You are meddling again" Godric finally said, breaking into a broad grin. If she was meddling again then his undead life would become infinitely more interesting. This was just what he needed. This was just what THEY needed. She smiled, very few others in the world were able to talk to her like that. The absurdity of the fact that she had spent so long wasting away on an island and the fact that he nearly met the sun hit them both and then it didn't matter to Godric why the Telepath was so special, he was just eternally grateful that she was. She had inadvertently saved them both.

"Does she know why she is here?" She asked. "Not at all, in fact if you were trying to drive a wedge between her and the Viking then you will be sadly disappointed, all she has done is demand to see her husband and question what we were doing to stop him because he would be here to safe her. Other than that though she is very resistant. She has handled the torture by the fairies better than a lot of Vampires or Weres that I have … known" Godric replied. And although she knew that the girl would come through the torture whether they intervened or not, she was very relieved that she seemed to have been saved from the worst of it. They both knew that the torture twins enjoyed what they did and would have been arrogant enough to presume that no one would have been able to find or stop them. With this in mind she suspected that any sexual abuse had yet to start but she wouldn't know for sure until she saw her. "Good" was her only spoken response to him. It could have been a statement about any number of things. "Shall we visit her before I head to the Hall where all the Royalty have gathered? It will be interesting to see just how tense we can make them all"

They made there way down the hotel corridors towards the warded room where the Telepath was being held. "By the way, Godric, where is the Viking?" Godric smiled, knowing that they were no longer in private "I don't know Your Grace. I was not told to fetch the Viking, just the Telepath. I can send for DeCastro though if that would help. As the Viking's King he should be able to tell you where he might be." A beat of silence passed between them as they both thought about how unlikely it was that DeCastro would have any control over the thousand year old Viking if it weren't for the fear of something happening to his Sookie. Although Godric couldn't figure out exactly what his ancient Maker was up to, he knew her well enough to know that the Vamps of the world were in for a bit of a stir when she was in a mood like this. "I must say Your Grace, it is an impressive thing to get so many monarchs and their entourages together at the same time with so little notice. I don't think there is another that could do that." and despite knowing that they would all convene at a single word from her, the AP had to admit to herself that she was very bloody relieved that they actually did.

As they entered the Telepath's room they could see that despite her brave facade she had been broken by the torture and the AP knew well enough the matters of the heart to know that they would get nothing from the girl without giving her the comfort she needed. Silently she sped to the door and opened it, knowing that the Viking had been attempting his best to not be detected the other side of it. He immediately fell to his knees, bowing his head when he saw who was in the room with his wife, he wanted so much to speed to her side, but even in these circumstances he didn't dare disrespect the Ancient Pythoness. Sookie however was fed up and the moment she saw her Viking she couldn't help but run to him, throwing herself into his safe embrace. Eric's arms wrapped around her protectively, still eyeing the other vampires and thanking the Old Gods that neither the AP or Godric seemed to mind Sookie's behaviour.

"Eric, Eric why didn't you come?" She yelled at him through sobs. On seeing him the precarious mask she had worn of being "OK" fell and all the hurts from the night before hit her hard. He held her tight in his big arms and shushed her quietly, stroking her hair, watching the AP and Godric warily. He pulled Sookie's face to his and kissed her quiet as she started to fall apart in his arms. He took her face in both of his big hands and looked deeply in to her eyes before weighing up the pros and cons of doing this in front of two of the most powerful Vampires in the world. He sighed as he realised he didn't care anymore whether they thought he was weak for loving his Sookie. "Lover, I would have been there if I could have, I was kept by Victor, I was taking as much of the pain as I could through the bond lover, shh, shh, I'm here now Lover. I. Am. Here." He would go through all the torture in the world before seeing Sookie cry and he would have done anything he could have to have saved her the night before but he knew that now was not the time to do this. He moved them to the sofa in the room, and she snuggled into his chest as his calming waves of love and reassurance rolled over her through the bond "Lover, you are stronger than nearly everyone I know but I need you to be strong for just a little bit longer. I will not go anywhere, I'm never letting you go. Ever again." As he continued to whisper to her and stroke her hair Sookie finally fell asleep in his arms. She hadn't been able to close her eyes since the night before without seeing Naeve and Lochlan, but with Eric sending her calm and love through the bond and holding her, stroking her hair and whispering into her ear she finally felt safe enough to close her eyes. Neither the AP or Godric interfered during this time and as much as this confused him he wasn't going to complain.

His thoughts were running at a million miles a minute. He couldn't figure out what the Ancient Pythoness was doing on American soil, let alone in a room with him and Sookie and although he had long suspected that Godric was one of the AP's children, him being here with her meant something big. He couldn't come up with any logical reason for them to both be here with them, and it was very rare that he was the youngest vampire in a room, leaving him confused and on the back foot, an unusual situation for him that he did not like. Now that Sookie had fallen asleep he watched them both closely and wisely waited for them to make the first move, the AP simply closed her pearly eyes.

After a full five minutes where the only movement in the room was Sookie's breathing, the Ancient Pythoness finally opened her eyes and turned them on to Eric. Even for a thousand year old Viking Vampire, to be the sole recipient of that stare was unnerving.

"We are not here to harm your Bonded Viking, Godric was the one who saved her from the demented Fae and he delivered her here at my bidding. I did this in the knowledge that you would follow once Victor released you." although he knew that the AP's knowledge was absolute he was shocked that she was being so uncharacteristicly open and straight forwards with him. Her eyes started to glow as she continued "It takes a rare individual to garner this attention from me Viking, as you know, so do not let her disappoint me. With the right chain of events, in which the pair of you earn your rightful position, you two could be entirely unbreakable and more powerful than anything else in this continent, leading the way for the supernatural community, fearsome, beautiful, loyal, fair and deadly." She paused here, her eyes almost too bright for Eric to withstand, the only thing that he could now see was the raw power resonating off her and as her voice turned icy he shivered realising that few lived to see the Ancient Pythoness in her true form like this, and fewer still got to see this and live "Yet with a single wrong turn you Viking will become a sex slave against your will for two centuries and she, the Telepath dies in three decades time as nothing more than an alcoholic barmaid"

Deadly silence fell over the four of them after the Ancient Pythoness finished her message.

Her eyes slowly faded once more to milky white and slowly she appeared to reign in the power and dominance that she had shown just a moment ago and once more appeared as nothing more than a harmless, blind, old crone and she announced almost cheerfully "If you will excuse me I need to go and announce to the gathered Royalty of the Americas that I'm moving here for a decade or so, and that I'm going to be visiting each Kingdom in turn to see first hand how coming out of the coffin is working." And with that she made her way out of the room leaving Eric speechless. Luckily for him Godric took pity on him enough to let him know that the room they were in was booked in their name for the next week while the last minute summit took place.

The Ancient Pythoness smiled as she entered the hall which contained America's Kings, Queens and Regents. She felt more like herself than she had in centuries as the hall fell silent on her mere arrival, it always did of course but she noticed it this time.

"Welcome to My Summit!"


End file.
